Pause the MID Server
- UpdatedJul 31, 2025
- 3 minutes to read
- Zurich
- MID Server
Pause the MID Server to temporarily prevent it from polling the ECC Queue for work or sending Discovery results back to the instance.
Before you begin
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About this task
You can only pause validated MID Servers. You might want to pause the MID Server when your network infrastructure is undergoing changes. This prevents applications like Discovery from throwing errors during a particular maintenance window.
Procedure
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On the MID Server form, select Pause MID under
Related Links.
The state of the MID Server changes to Paused.
Figure 1. A paused MID Server 
MID Server pause
The MID server can be put into a Paused state to temporarily prevent it from polling the ECC Queue for work or sending Discovery results back to the instance.
Unlike stopping the MID Server from the Windows or Linux server command line on the MID Server machine, pausing the MID server is something that you can do from the instance. The MID Server pause feature is available starting with the Istanbul release.
- Access the MID Server logs and delete log entries.
- View MID server statistics. While the MID Server is in the Paused state it stops generating statistics. But you can still view the statistics generated before you paused the MID Server.
- Retrieve the MID Server thread dump.
- Make and save configuration changes and property changes to the server. The changes take effect after the MID Server is resumed.
- Clear the ECC queue.
The MID server heartbeat continues to function while the MID Server is in the Paused state. If the MID Server is upgraded while it is in the Paused state, the MID Server state automatically changes to Up after successful upgrade. It does not return to the Paused state.
During MID Server selection, paused MID Servers can still be selected but are prioritized below MID Servers that are not paused.
Events that occur during MID Server pause
The vCenter and SNMP event collectors, continue to run and process events when you pause the MID Server. These events are not part of the normal synchronous communication that the MID Server has with the instance that you see in the ECC queue. Events are still relayed to the instance and can even trigger actions on records in the instance, such as a CI update. For example, if vCenter detects that a virtual machine goes down or is deleted, a vCenter event makes a change to the status of the corresponding CI record for that virtual machine.
Related Content
- MID Server system requirements
Use these minimum system requirements to allocate resources for computers hosting MID Servers.
- MID Server upgrades
Upgrade MID Servers manually, or automatically through the instance. MID Server automatic upgrade is triggered when the instance upgrades and the MID Server no longer has the same version. The new MID Server package is downloaded from install.service-now.com, replaces the old one, and the MID Server starts with the new version.
- Resolving MID Server issues
Troubleshoot problems with the MID Server to find solutions. Monitor the MID Server to receive alerts about issues as they occur. Troubleshooting procedures exist to resolve specific problems with the MID Server. The Knowledge Base on Hi contains several articles to help you troubleshoot MID Server issues.
- MID Server dashboard
The MID Server dashboard is a central place for MID Server users to monitor ongoing operations. The dashboard consists of reports and gauges that display information from the MID Server Status table.
- MID Server properties
Properties control the behavior of all MID Servers or a particular MID Server.
- MID Server parameters
Parameters control the behavior of a particular MID Server and have lower precedence than MID Server properties.
- MID Server Configuration Parameter settings and priority
The MID Server's settings reside in multiple tables and the MID Server prioritizes them in a set order. MIDConfigParameter must be defined with the correct type-style builders.
- MID Server File Cleaner
A monitor thread runs in the MID Server to clean up old files, to keep the size and quantity of files within the install folder manageable, and to prevent performance issues with the MID Servers.
- MID Server protected records and reserved characters
Some MID Server records cannot be altered. Certain special characters are pre-defined in XML and cannot be used in passwords.
- MID Server privileged commands
To discover certain information on a host server, the MID Server must run SSH commands with higher privileges. The platform provides default privileged commands for the MID Server to use and the ability to add additional commands to the system.
- MIDSystem methods
MIDSystem variables (referred to by the variable name ms.) provide a variety of methods to get information about the MID Server.
- Manually start, stop, and restart a MID Server
If you did not start the MID Server at the end of the installation procedure, you can manually start the MID Server.
- MID Server heartbeat
The instance checks the MID Server for a response every 5 minutes, using a synthetic transaction monitoring system.
- Set the MID Server JVM memory size
The MID Server starts with a default JVM memory allocation, but you can modify this setting in the configuration file.